Wear the Right Gloves This Instant!

It’s springtime. You’re getting ready to do some serious weed pulling in your front yard, so you hunt down your red, rough-but-tough gardening gloves and get to it.

Just a few weeks ago, you were getting ready to go skiing on the mountain. You slid on your ski pants, down jacket, beanie, sunglasses, gloves, and you were ready to rock.

Were these the same gloves you’re reaching for now, to do yard work?  

No.

Ski gloves are not gardening gloves. Nor are the khaki pants you wear to P.F. Chang’s the same pair of pants you’d choose to veg out in around the house while watching movies and eating popcorn.

Gloves, pants…you get the idea. One pair does not fit all. Context matters.

About two months ago, the mountain town I live in got hit with a 118-year record-breaking snow dump. And I mean dummmmmp. Go to bed with 4 inches of snow on the ground, wake up to two feet. And that was just the beginning. The snow continued falling for three solid days. And with it, my tears. (#SWFCan’tHackConstantShoveling)

As soon as the snow stopped dropping from the sky (leaving about three feet of the stuff standing tall outside), I was suffering severe cabin fever. A friend and I decided to go out to dinner.

I have a front-wheel drive Nissan Versa with Blizzak snow tires that could win awards for its efforts on the snow. My friend has an all-wheel drive Subaru Crosstrek. Guess which one we took?

A car with front-wheel drive, no matter how great the winter tires, remains a two-wheel drive vehicle. A Crosstrek, well, is a Crosstrek. There’s no comparison.

From the comfort or discomfort of wearing proper clothing (gloves, pants, etc.) to choosing the right vehicle to handle the terrain, if you choose the wrong thing, you pay the consequences.

Icy fingers. Stares from fancy-pants restaurant goers. Or sliding into a ditch and getting stuck.

You want to choose wisely. It’ll help you avoid discomfort, embarrassment, or putting your life on the line.

The thing is, when it comes to our words, we don’t suffer the consequences when we choose foolishly. Our loved ones do.

Have you ever been there for a grieving family member and said something you thought might help, but it actually made things worse? Have you ever heard a friend articulate the depths of his despair and offered a simple, trite, even flippant response? Have you ever wanted to encourage someone with Scripture and seen their countenance harden? (Lord knows, even the truth of His words can be ill-timed.)

It’s not that silence is the answer, but in every case, context matters. Increasing your EQ, empathy, and wisdom mean you wear the right gloves for the task at hand. 

Heeding context may save you from inadvertently offering gardening gloves to a snow skier. It may help you avoid telling your husband to wear pajama pants out to dinner. And it may save the lives of your passengers when you choose to drive the more robust vehicle in a snowstorm.

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” —Proverbs 25:11 (ESV)

“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” —Proverbs 12:18 (ESV)

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” —Colossians 4:6 (NIV)

To Think or Feel This Instant!

I like to know stuff. 

I like to know the number of people in a crowded room, the number of calories in my food, the number of dollars I’m saving when something is a certain percentage off. I may be a bit OCD, but I don’t think I’m alone in my quest to know stuff, numbers or not. We seek knowledge as though our lives depend on it. Some are voracious readers, others are voracious talkers (you know who you are) – all in an effort to gain or exchange data. Information. Fuel for our fires to keep us moving forward in this life, to make wise decisions, to become more well-rounded people.

But when it comes to matters of the heart, I am idle. It seems my feelings happen TO me, not as a result of any effort on my part to pursue them. Someone compliments me? Happiness. Someone ignores me? Hurt. Someone smiles at me? Warm fuzzies. Someone criticizes me? Hurt again. All throughout the day, it seems my feelings are handed to me. And so my life becomes a rollercoaster of feelings that merely respond to what I’m given by factors outside of my control.

These are fleshly ways of living in the natural world. But what if the spiritual could infuse the natural? What if instead of diligently pursuing earthly knowledge with our intellect, we chose to ask and wait for the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the thoughts of God? What if we carved out time and space, silence and stillness to listen to Him as we seek not our own wisdom, but His? 

And what if instead of waiting passively for “good feelings” to be handed to us by the people in our lives, we instead pursued inner joy, abundant love, and consistent contentment in Christ as though our lives depended on it? What if matters of the soul became our priority? How might life begin to change for us, and how much might we begin to change for life?

“All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.” – 2 Chronicles 9:23

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33